Starmer's talking shop is selling fake solutions to mass migration

Supporters of migration point to human suffering and the legal right to seek asylum; critics argue that insecure borders meant we no longer know who is coming into the continent of Europe making us all less safe as a result. Both are obviously right but the intransigence in recognising the concerns of opponents led to a policy quagmire that failed to adequately respond to either.

Sir Keir Starmer hosted a summit on uncontrolled migration (Image: free) Add to the equation the reality that Russia persistently tries to weaponise mass people movements to destabilise eastern Europe in general and Poland in particular (through its proxy Belarus) and it becomes an unavoidable reality that international cooperation on immigration and where it exists, the illegality surrounding it, is long overdue.

In late summer of 2015 the decomposing bodies of what were initially believed to be 20 but turned out to be 71 mostly Syrian, and Kurdish Iraqis were found in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Bulgaria. They didn’t end up there as a result of the benevolent actions of some well-meaning souls. Every victim paid a lot of money to those exploiting their desperation and who cared little for their safety.

The total disregard for the value of human life was starkly demonstrated as their putrefied remains leaked out onto the side of the road where they were abandoned. The indescribable horror that faced the police who dealt with the discovery is surpassed only by the suffering of those who endured the terrifying and agonising death. Predictable condemnation followed but joined up action on tackling the criminal gangs now operating was being fiercely resisted lest it led to wider collaboration on distribution of the masses.

Seven days later a young Alan Kurdi stole the headlines across the world. Alan’s name will be recognised by few but the picture of the three-year old’s lifeless body, clad in his bright red T-shirt and blue shorts, being carried from the sea near Bodrum by a local police officer should be indelibly etched onto our memories forever. As a symbol of the risks the desperate were willing to take it shocked the world more than the 71 lives lost in Bulgaria the week before.

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Europe’s migration numbers exploded in 2015 when 1.3 million arrived at its southern shores. An estimated 5 million have landed since and, short of feeble attempts to shore up the borders, governments across the continent have been slow to react to the considerable domestic pressures this has created.

During my time as president (and vice-president) of the European Confederation of Police, the real human challenges associated with mass migration was a near constant issue on our agenda. The millions landing across Europe’s southern shores were creating overwhelming pressure on Greek services in particular and the wider European handwringing over the problem failed in every sense.

The European Border Agency, Frontex had hundreds of millions of Euros thrown at it but remained largely ineffective as it was trying to tackle a symptom and not the causes. Almost all of those arriving were traumatised. Many had lost loved ones, and many others including children were being exploited and trafficked into slavery or prostitution and faced futures even more miserable and uncertain than those they were fleeing. The issue was more than how to keep people out, but how to manage those who were now in, and on both counts almost every policy failed.

Europe’s Largest refugee camp at Moria on the island of Lesbos became symbolic of that failure. Originally intended to hold 3,000, its population swelled to over 20,000 within a few years and led to some of the most inhumane living, and dangerous working conditions that could be found anywhere.

Labelled a concentration camp by Pope Francis in 2017, the rapidly expanding camp overwhelmed police services, drove a surge in crime, and created fear and resentment amongst locals. Open sewers, lack of basic hygiene, degradation, and violence became part of the daily reality of its residents, yet still few were moved to step in. Mória was very much seen as a Greek problem and remained so until it was finally destroyed by fire a few years ago.

Migrants arrive in Dover, on England's south coast (Image: free) There are clearly hard conversations to be had about the complex responsibilities of countries like the UK in creating the ingredients that have contributed to the instability in many of the nations from which people are leaving and fleeing; but that complexity should neither see the UK lying prostrate in its immigration policy, nor pretending it history doesn’t exist and pursuing the fool’s errand of simply trying to lock people out.

Starmer’s Summit is undoubtedly taking too narrow a view on where the problems with immigration lie and he clearly wants to sell to the public that by targeting the criminality he will solve the problem. He won't, of course, but by conceding the need to cooperate he has moved to a position few prime minsters of recent years have been willing to consider - a strengthening of ties with Europe, and in an increasingly unpredictable world that will always be in our best interests.

Calum Steele is a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, and former general secretary of the International Council of Police Representative Associations. He remains an advisor to both